Managing Your GroupWise Mailbox Size

The Problem: My GroupWise Mailbox is Full

• What's in your GroupWise mailbox? It is the space where all email, attachments, appointments, tasks and notes are stored. It's not just the folder titled "Mailbox" but all folders, sub-folders and calendars visible in your live mailbox folder list. Your mailbox is in a state of constant change and was never designed to store files permanently. While many of us are guilty of keeping a special email message around for years in our live mailbox, you just can't do this with all messages and must manage your mailbox size so there's plenty of space for the arrivial of new items.
• Why is mailbox size limited? Your mailbox size is determined by current system limitations. System limits aren't just disk space but include other factors such as network traffic, backup device capacities, disaster recovery capabilities and database size limitations. Ultimately space limits are always relaxed a bit as the technology improves and additional resources are aquired to maintain larger mailbox sizes.
  If you've been here a while you may recall that prior to the GroupWise rollout in 2006, we used Pegasus Mail for our enterprise email system and with it everyone had a 100MB mailbox. In late Spring 2006 GroupWise was rolled out and with it an increase in mailbox sizes for Faculty and Staff users to 200MB. In August 2008 the doIT replaced a tape drive with a new, higher capacity model. This increased backup capacity on the "back end" and has allowed IT to increase Faculty and Staff mailbox sizes to 250MB and new server hardware in 2010 allowed us to increase again to the current 300MB standard however we're doing it "as needed". This conservative approach allows us to maintain smaller mailboxes for those that don't challenge their space limit while increasing the mailbox size for those that bump into their size limitation.
  Note: The State of Wyoming's Electronic Mail Management Standards document says "The total standard mail box size limit will be placed at 150 megabytes."
• Mailbox size warnings: Our system is configured to issue canned messages to users when either of two conditions are met. One, when your mailbox is over the preset threshold of 75% to 85% full and two, when your mailbox size is exceeded. These messages are self-explanatory when you see them.
• What if I exceed my mailbox limit? Once your mailbox size has exceeded it's limit, you will continue to receive mail however you will not be able to send mail until your mailbox size is brought back under the size limit.

• GroupWise Client for Windows: At the very bottom of the GroupWise Client for Windows you'll see "Mailbox Size" size shown as a percentage of total space used. Hovering your mouse over this will generate a pop-up showing you your total mailbox size and used vs free space statistics. Left clicking on the Mailbox Size box will open a new window with more information and options.
• GroupWise Client for Mac and Linux: The GroupWise Client for Mac and Linux does not have a size reporting feature.
• GroupWise WebAccess Client: Anyone logged into WebAccess (PC, Mac or Linux users) can see their mailbox size statistics by viewing the gauge in the upper right corner titled "Mailbox Usage". Hovering your mouse over the indicator will invoke a pop-up with a bit of additional information.

Attachments are not email: They gobble up your mailbox space much quicker than messages alone and have no place in your dynamic message store. If you've got your mailbox whittled down to a few hundred messages and it's still full you're most likely using your mailbox space to store attached files such as pictures of your children's children or a few drafts of a huge PowerPoint presentation.
The body of messages, appointments and tasks usually aren't very big so they don't impact your mailbox space until you have thousands of them. Indivitual items that do adversly affect your mailbox space are messages (or appointments) that have attachments associated with them.
• What to do with Attachments: The best place to store attached files is on your computer's hard drive. One good solution is to create a folder in "My Documents" called "Attachments". Save the attached files you need to keep or modify to this folder then delete the message or remove the attachment from the message in GroupWise if you need to keep that message for reference. If you prefer to use GroupWise to organize and store messages with attachments then move those messages complete with attachments to your GroupWise Archive.
  Note: Deleted attachment laden messages will still impact your mailbox size until they are removed/deleted from the Trash folder. To recover the attachment's space immediately you'll need to empty it from the Trash folder or use "Delete and Empty" option when deleting to remove the message completely from your mailbox space.

• You'll recover mailbox space quickly, but what are the consequences?: GroupWise has a failsafe mechanism built in that allows you to recover deleted messages. By default when you delete an item in GroupWise, the item is moved to the Trash folder where it will remain for seven days so it can be recovered if need be. So, it is recommended not to empty your Trash because this breaks the Undelete feature and makes it impossible for you to recover any work-related items should you need to see them again within the next week.

Locating Items You Can Get Rid of to Free-up Space in Your Mailbox

• "Mailbox Size:" in the status bar (Windows): When you left click on the Mailbox Size reporting pane (or Tools > Check Mailbox Size) a window will open where you'll see items listed in any of the four selectable view catagories sorted by size with the largest at the top. You will immediately see which files are taking up the most space and can select items to Delete from here. Column headings such as "Folder" can be added to help calrify what will be deleted.
  Note 1: Items you delete from this interface are not recoverable. Note 2: The messages displayed here are from ALL folders.
• Add a "Size" column for sorting (Mac and Windows): Another way to visualize the largest items is to add a size column to the current folder you're viewing. Right-click any of the existing column headings such as From or Subject and select "More columns" from the drop down menu. Select "Size" from "Available columns:" then click "Add" to add it to "Selected columns:" then click "Ok". The new size column should be added to your folder contents display. Clicking on this column heading will sort your mail by ascending or descending size so you can easily pick off the big ones.

Visualizing and Deleteing Old Mailbox Items: these are a couple of easy ways to see your mailbox items sorted by date

• "Mailbox Size:" in the status bar (Windows): When you left click on the Mailbox Size reporting pane (or Tools > Check Mailbox Size) a window will open where you'll see items listed in any of the four selectable view catagories sorted by size with the largest at the top. If you click on the Date column heading the messages will then be sorted by date. To reverse the sort order simply click the Date column heading again. With your messages sorted by date you can easily select outdated items to delete.
  Note 1: Items you delete from this interface are not recoverable. Note 2: The messages displayed here are from ALL folders.
• Manipulating the "Date" column (Mac and Windows): While you have any folder open click on the Date column heading once to sort your messages by date. To reverse the sort order simply click the Date column heading again. With your messages sorted by date you can easily select outdated items to delete.

Visualizing and Archiving Old or Large Items: archiving moves items from your mailbox to offline local storage

• "Mailbox Size:" in the status bar (Windows): When you left click on the Mailbox Size reporting pane (or Tools > Check Mailbox Size) a window will open where you'll see items listed in any of the four selectable view catagories sorted by size with the largest at the top. If you click on the Date column heading the messages will then be sorted by date. To reverse the sort order simply click the Date column heading again. With the messages sorted by date or size you can easily select the oldest or largest items to Archive from here. Select one or more items to archive. An Archive button is provided to the right of the message listing.
  Note 1: Items you delete from this interface are not recoverable. Note 2: The messages displayed here are from ALL folders.
• Manipulating the "Date" and "Size" columns (Mac and Windows): While you have any folder open click on either of these column headings once to sort your messages for archiving by size or date. To reverse the sort order simply click either of the column headings again. Select one or more items to archive, right click on it and select "Move to Archive".

The "Sent Items" folder:

• Don't forget me!: If you're running out of Mailbox space this may very well be where the problem lies. "Sent Items" holds a copy of all messages you send out as well as any attachments. This folder, like any other, impacts your live Mailbox size so it requires regular maintenance too.

Recovering Mailbox Space After Deleteing Items

• When you delete an item it is moved from some folder to your Trash folder, i.e. it's still in your mailbox. So the item needs to be emptied, as a default, this is done after it's been there for 7 days but this is configurable (Right-click the Trash folder, select Properties then the Cleanup tab). You can wait until this is done automatically or open the Trash folder and delete (empty) the items yourself.
• To recover a deleted item's space immediately use the "Delete and Empty" option when deleting a message.

What to do Next and Additional Information

• You may find that after identifying and removing the large items out of your mailbox, such as that 20MB message from your Cousin with 15 pictures attached, that you've recovered lots of working space and no further action is required.
  
• For those of you who find you still need additional working space, Archiving is the next course of action to take.
• About GroupWise Archive: How-to Discussion (Mac and Windows)

• An option disabled by default: this GroupWise feature is configured within the Cleanup options. This is acessable through Tools > Options > Environment > Cleanup or by right-clcking the Trash folder and selecting Properties > Cleanup.
• Few people use this feature because it seems to work against human nature archiving items you would otherwise not archive based on date and issues can arise when Archive folders are moved or deleted.

• Discussion

• Discussion